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 | Irene Valle Robles / Juan Valle Robles Architectural Guide Madrid 134 × 245 mm, 176 pages 280 pictures, softcover ISBN 978-3-86922-398-8 (English) ISBN 978-3-86922-591-3 (Spanish) EUR 38.00 April 2017. DOM publishers, Berlin |
Now available from DOM publishers:
Irene Valle Robles / Juan Valle Robles
Architectural Guide Madrid
Madrid, the highest geographical centre of Spain, is one of the largest cities in Europe. Although the Castilian town was declared a royal seat and capital in the sixteenth century, it began to develop into a truly big city only at the beginning of the twentieth century. The construction of the Gran Via was a major contributor to this development: for Madrid, for example, the famous streetcar is what the Boulevard Haussmann is for Paris or Fifth Avenue for New York. Its completion around 1929 marked the beginning of the change from a historical city to a modern metropolis.
The Architectural Guide Madrid takes this urbanisation phase as a starting point to accompany Madrid on its way to the lively and restless metropolis that we know today. This volume presents 150 significant buildings that sprang up in Madrid since 1919. Seven routes lead through twenty-one districts of the city: from the centre, the Manzanares River leads to many cultural buildings and further on to the shops and businesses in the neighbourhoods of Chamartìn and Salamanca. From there, the tour continues into the financial and university district, north of the city centre, and finally to the southern and eastern outskirts of the city. This book presents the architectural examples that illustrate the city's history and current urban changes. It also covers the analysis of the city planning and the districts' networking. It also explains the influence that the construction of Gran Via has on today's urban development. This ambitious project, which took over four decades to be completed, was one of the largest urban enterprises in Madrid, with enormous social, economic, and cultural impacts on the city to this day.
The Iberian Peninsula is already represented by the Architectural Guide Lisbon at DOM publishers. Barcelona, Bilbao, and Porto are in preparation.
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The Architectural Guides by DOM publishers are handy travel companions for readers interested in architecture and culture. Projects are carefully selected and researched to make each individual book a ready work of reference, while background information and attractive design inspire armchair travellers to imaginary journeys. In 2014, the series was awarded with the “Iconic Award” by the German Design Council, in 2016 with the “German Design Award Special”, and in 2017 with the ITB BookAwards. Further information: www.dom-publishers.com